Nishinaka Yukito's Yobitsugi works are produced by breaking a completed container and bringing the pieces together again to create new innovative beauty.
It is an expression of the lifestyle of a broken and repaired individual to move forward into the future.
This avant-garde expression is based on the traditional aesthetic sense "Beauty in imperfection", a beloved tradition of over 400 years in Japan.
Yobitsugi literally translates: "beauty in imperfection".
The Yobitsugi Glass series was inspired by the traditional Japanese restoration technique for ceramic tea bowls.
The broken pieces are gathered back with tonic urushi lacquer with gold dust, highlighting the cracks as beautiful decorative features, rather than hidden repair work.
It was the samurai and their tea masters in the Edo era who first saw the beauty potential of the cracks and designed this special repair technique. The samurai enjoyed the tea ceremonies between their battles, reaching a state of Zen, and used Yobitsugi tea bowls with the cracks serving as a metaphor for "death and rebirth."
The aesthetics of this tradition have persisted for over 400 years.
The restored Yobitsugi tea bowls are considered national treasures in Japan, celebrating beauty in imperfection.
The Yobitsugi Glass series continues this tradition with an innovative interpretation, where his glass works emphasize this Japanese philosophy of imperfect beauty.
The Yobitsugi Glass series manipulates the imperfection in the beauty of the veins of each vessel from repaired fragments and intriguing cracks to encourage the art of perfect harmony.
